LThe field was still burning.
Ash floated through the air like snow. The grass had long been blackened. The fallen Sky Watchers had vanished into dust, their armor left behind, brittle and cracked like shed skin. And at the center of it all stood Coker—his hands still glowing, his breath ragged, his eyes not fully his.
He didn't speak.
Not yet.
The light in his chest pulsed slowly, each beat louder than the last.
Lilin watched from a distance, afraid to approach him too quickly. His power was flaring without control, like the walls inside him had cracked, and now the ocean was spilling through. She'd seen this before—long ago, in another war. The Devourer wasn't just a name. It was a state. A moment of becoming.
He was close to it now.
Too close.
---
The soldiers behind them stood in silence. Even they knew what this meant. Their lord was changing. Remembering. Becoming. And the more he remembered, the less he looked like a boy.
One of them, the scarred man with the gray eyes, stepped forward.
"My lord—"
"Stop calling me that," Coker said.
His voice was deeper. Like two people had spoken at once.
The scarred man nodded but didn't retreat.
"They will send more," he said. "They won't stop until you are bound again."
"I won't let that happen."
Coker turned to the mountain.
Then to the sky.
Then, finally, to Lilin.
"I need to find her."
Lilin frowned. "Who?"
"The girl who called the moon."
---
The journey east took three days.
The skies never brightened. Even when the sun was supposed to rise, it didn't. The moon remained, pale and wide, hanging like an eye watching everything.
Along the way, strange things happened.
Birds began following them—birds with no feathers, just shadow and bone. The river they crossed turned black when Coker stepped in it. Trees bent away from him as they walked past, and even the wind stopped blowing when he spoke.
Lilin didn't ask questions. Not yet.
But she knew.
He wasn't slipping.
He was being *remembered.*
And that was worse.
---
They reached the edge of a ruined village on the fourth night.
It was completely empty. No people. No animals. No sounds.
But in the center, tied to an old tower by threads of silver light, was a girl.
She hung there, arms open wide, face to the sky, as if waiting for someone.
Coker stopped walking.
"That's her," he whispered.
Lilin narrowed her eyes. "She's humming."
Coker listened.
Yes. A soft tune. One he somehow recognized. It wasn't in words—it was a memory wrapped in sound.
He stepped forward slowly.
The silver threads shimmered as he approached, as if sensing him.
Then her eyes opened.
They glowed.
"Devourer," she said softly. "You came."
Coker froze. "How do you know me?"
"I saw you before I was born."
Lilin stepped beside him. "She's a Mooncaller. Very rare."
"What does that mean?" Coker asked.
The girl smiled.
"I dream of people who no longer exist… and bring their names back."
She looked at him gently.
"Do you want your name?"
Coker hesitated.
"I… don't know."
She looked up at the moon.
Then back down.
"Then I'll show you what the sky stole."
---
She sang again.
But this time, the notes weren't soft.
They pierced the air like arrows. The ground around them cracked. The sky shifted.
And then—
The moon bled.
It turned red, slowly, like it remembered something terrible.
Coker gasped and fell to one knee.
Images flooded him.
Not visions. Memories.
A throne made of flame.
A city kneeling before him.
A sword shaped like a question.
A woman laughing as she stabbed him.
The sound of stars breaking.
The sound of *his own voice* screaming something forgotten.
He clutched his chest, trembling.
The Mooncaller's voice grew louder.
Then the threads around her snapped.
She fell—but gently, as if caught by the wind.
Lilin caught her.
"She's burning up," she said.
Coker tried to speak, but his throat was tight.
Then the girl opened her eyes again.
"You were never a villain," she said softly. "You were a warning."
Coker looked at her, broken and unsure.
"A warning to who?"
"To the gods."
---
They carried her to the edge of the ruined village. The wind was back, colder than before. The moon hung low, now fully red.
Coker sat beside the girl as she rested.
Lilin sat nearby, sharpening her dagger, eyes never still.
"You remembered something," she said.
Coker nodded.
"I saw the throne. I saw myself sitting on it."
"Were you happy?"
He shook his head.
"I was… empty."
Lilin paused.
"Then it wasn't your throne."
Coker looked up. "What do you mean?"
"There was another Devourer before you. Maybe what you're remembering isn't yours. Maybe the stars gave you someone else's crown."
Coker stared at the fire.
"I don't want it."
"But it wants you," Lilin said.
---
That night, the Mooncaller awoke screaming.
Coker rushed to her side.
She grabbed his hand.
"They know now," she whispered. "The ones who sleep beneath the sea. They're waking up. You need to move. You need to find the Eye That Watches."
"Where?"
She gasped, her body convulsing.
Coker held her tight. "Where?!"
She pointed toward the mountains.
"Beyond the Vale of Teeth… in the city that fell upward."
And then, her eyes went still.
But her body didn't die.
She turned into moonlight.
Pure silver light.
And vanished.
---
Coker stared at the space she had been.
Lilin whispered, "She gave everything for that name."
Coker stood.
His body still glowed—but now it felt different. Controlled. Calmer.
"She said the gods are waking up."
"She's right," Lilin said.
He looked at her. "Will you come with me?"
"Always."
He nodded.
"Then we go."
---
Far away, beneath the sea, a voice stirred.
And a god opened one eye.